Mobile Casino Crack Down in Tokyo

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Wednesday, 21 July 2010 - 23:58

Police in Tokyo recently arrested three men on suspicion of running an illegal mobile casino in Japan. Online gambling has been a hotly contested issue in the country, with many authorities fighting against its use, but this is the first time mobile casino operators have come into the limelight.

The group, led by 30-year-old Tomoyuki Miyamoto, is believed to have generated over ¥130 million ($1.3 million) since launching their live casino. Their site was nothing like the casinos we normally find online and only offered one game called ‘Janken’ – basically a rock paper scissors competition.

Winners were given cash prizes of ¥1000 with three wins in a row. This would rise up to ¥10,000 for five consecutive wins. Each game cost about ¥315 to enter and prizes were deposited directly to the winner’s bank account. However, Miyamoto claimed that he sought advice from lawyers about the legality of the site before its launch and was told that it presented no legal issues. But the odds of winning five and row made it close to impossible to win a big cash prize. Only ¥1.4 million was paid out of the ¥130 million earned through the site.